The global-commodities boom of the past fifteen years sent prices soaring for raw materials of all types—not only for food products like wheat and ground beef, shown here, but also for energy and metals.
That boom (or super-cycle, as some call it) was driven in large part by China’s voracious demand for natural resources, and it had a profound impact on the global economy, providing a sizable boost to economic growth in many developing countries and creating a drag on growth in countries that depend on imported oil (like the U.S.). The boom also helped fuel social unrest, as rising food prices made it difficult for some developing countries to feed their populations………………………………………..Full Article: Source

The deepening relationship between America’s judicial system and its biggest banks has reached the world of metals. The Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has reportedly issued subpoenas to Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase and others as it investigates complaints that banks and other owners of metals warehouses have been hoarding metals and driving up prices.
Private class-action suits filed in federal courts spanning New York, Michigan, Louisiana and Florida have made similar price-fixing allegations, which the banks vigorously deny………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Commodity prices have corrected, making it a ripe time for countercyclical investments. Investors in the commodities markets are going through a malaise that we haven’t seen since the late 1990s. For the first time in more than a decade, many are wondering out loud whether the “commodity supercycle” is dead. The commodity supercycle — a term coined in the early 2000s — is a theory that commodities began a long-term cyclical bull market in the 2000s.
This bull market is driven by fundamental factors including the rise of the emerging-market consumer class, increasing urbanization trends and rising incomes around the world. As a result, prices of commodities from gold to soybeans were set to rise. Recently, this theory has come under fire for not being an accurate reflection of the current state of the market………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Oil prices have been moving up in recent weeks, largely owing to geopolitical volatility and supply disruptions. “The disruptions in Libyan oil supplies have lasted far longer than we initially thought with no near-term resolution in sight, which was further complicated by the involvement of the military late last week,” said Goldman Sachs’ Jeff Currie in a new note to clients.
“Combined with the ongoing problems in Iraq which we see extending into the autumn, OPEC outages since the beginning of the summer have taken 33 million barrels off the market, which was further exacerbated by a 32 million barrel downward revision to total OECD petroleum inventories by the IEA.”……………………………………….Full Article: Source

Benchmark global oil markets may already fully reflect the risk of political instability worsening in Egypt and the spill-over effects on the broader region, implying further oil price gains may be limited in scope this week, traders and analysts told CNBC.
Oil prices are still likely to drift higher this week, CNBC’s weekly sentiment survey showed, though fundamental investors may try to blunt the advance believing current prices don’t reflect well-supplied markets and a slowdown in major emerging market consumers such as China………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Oil production from members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries was high to keep pace with local demand, an analyst said.
The Joint Organizations Data Initiative, a project supervised by Riyadh’s International Energy Forum, said oil production from Saudi Arabia declined by 20,000 barrels per day in June to 9.6 million. Iraqi and Kuwaiti oil production followed a similar trend, with 6 percent declines reported from May to June………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh has said his ministry aims to raise Iranian oil production capacity as quickly as possible to 4.2 million b/d to give Iran more leverage within producer organization OPEC, local media reported Monday.
The newly appointed minister also stressed that capacity was a greater priority for him than actual production. “The enhancement of Iran’s oil production capacity will result in increasing Iran’s negotiating power in the international community and OPEC,’ Zanganeh was quoted as saying by oil ministry news service Shana………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Producing an ounce of gold can cost roughly $1,500, even though the metal is now selling for only $1,300 to $1,400 per ounce, reported trade publication Mining Weekly on Monday.
Gold Fields Limited (NYSE:GFI) CEO Nick Holland said that “all-in” cost metrics from the World Gold Council, promoted in June, show that the global gold industry is incurring losses amid high production costs and low gold prices………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Gold prices have dropped as much as 36% from the August 2011 high of about US$1,900 per oz. Gold mining stocks have been pummeled even more. Once a safe haven from GFC fears, gold has turned into a much less desired asset since the financial markets have recovered.
Since the start of July, gold has recovered 14%, and if the great sell-off has passed and investors may start filtering back in, could these miners also benefit and rise in price themselves?……………………………………….Full Article: Source

Gold price today hit a fresh two-month high as weak US data boosted the gold safe-haven appeal and further inflows into the world’s biggest gold-backed exchange traded fund (ETF) provided additional support. Last week SPDR Gold Trust recorded its first weekly increase in holdings since November 2012. In other precious metals, silver lost some ground but remained stable above $23 an ounce.
Among industrial metals, copper slipped weighed down by uncertainty over the timing of potential Fed tapering of monetary stimulus. The fall in the copper price was mirrored by declines in all other base metals………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Silver still looks golden. A late July recommendation to sell puts and buy calls on the iShares Silver Trust (ticker: SLV) when the fund was trading just under $20 profitably expired Friday. The trade continues to look like a winner, so investors should re-establish a position, using a similar options strategy.
The expired trade was to buy the iShares Silver Trust August $20 call for 22 cents when the fund was below $20. When the calls expired Friday they were worth about $2.37. Traders were also advised to sell the iShares Silver Trust’s August $18 put for 39 cents, which more than paid for the August $20 call. The puts expired worthless, so investors kept the proceeds………………………………………..Full Article: Source

A price rally inspired speculators to build bullish positions in precious metals futures and options traded on the Comex division of New York Mercantile Exchange and the Nymex, confirming many market participants’ expectations that speculators shed short positions when prices rose.
The gains in the data released Friday by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission came via a mix of short covering, that is buying back of previously sold positions, and newly added long positions as noted in both the disaggregated and legacy reports………………………………………..Full Article: Source

India’s government would seem to have enough to worry about with its diving currency and growing concerns about economic stability.
But the deepening anxieties are being compounded by a more local worry: the shutdown of a commodities exchange that has left prominent domestic brokerages facing potentially heavy losses and has led to broker demands for a government rescue package for the bourse………………………………………..Full Article: Source

J.P. Morgan Chase has told potential buyers of its commodities assets that it expects to kick off sale efforts in early September. The bank plans at that time to circulate a memo that details the balance sheets and profitability of its physical-commodity assets, according to people familiar with the sale process.
J.P. Morgan said in July it was pursuing strategic alternatives for these assets, which range from metal warehouses to pipeline leases and power plants, including a possible sale. The bank hopes to sell the assets as one package, but depending on the interest of buyers it may have to sell them piecemeal………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Interesting times for two of the main “commodity currencies”. The recent rebound in metal prices – iron ore and copper have had a good few weeks on raised hopes for Chinese demand – has helped the Australian dollar halt the slide that began mid-April.
A dip below $0.90 has since been reversed and is one which technical analysts may come to see as a “head” in an inverted “head and shoulders” pattern. A possible precursor for an Aussie rebound?……………………………………….Full Article: Source

The Indian rupee plummeted to a record low against the dollar on Monday, leading a rout by Brazil’s real and other emerging market currencies seen by investors as the most vulnerable to an exodus of foreign capital.
A fierce selloff in many emerging currencies shows no sign of abating as the expected withdrawal of US monetary stimulus prompts investors to shun markets seen as riskier because of funding deficits, slowing economies and inflation………………………………………..Full Article: Source

According to Reuters, India hiked the import duty on gold yet again to a record 10% last week and raised excise duty on the metal, as imports jumped in July despite the government’s attempts to strangle supply and curb demand to rein in dollar spending.
This decision resulted in a further rally, and gold prices in India rose to their four-month high on Friday. Today, the yellow metal extended gains and climbed up to over 86,000 rupees per ounce, which is gold’s highest level since April 10………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Nine of the nation’s 10 utilities failed to meet their self-imposed five-year targets for reducing carbon dioxide emissions by an average of 20 percent, an industry body said Monday.
Their failure was caused mainly by the Fukushima nuclear disaster, which forced them to revert to thermal power generation after the March 11, 2011, Great East Japan Earthquake triggered the shutdown of virtually all of the reactors in Japan………………………………………..Full Article: Source